Hearing the actual speaking voices of some of our favorites cartoon voice actors can be as startling as seeing what they look like. You almost expect to hear a crowd coming out of their mouths, but they are mere mortals with astonishing talents. Some have voices that favor the timbre of certain characters a tad here and there, some sound more like their famous voices then others.

In the case of Jack Mercer, being the longtime voice of Popeye sets a fan up to expect something a little more boisterous than the quiet, pleasant fellow you hear on this record. True, he is being directed here as a children’s narrator, thus delivering the words in an ever-so-slightly over-pronounced way. Also, he rarely served as narrator, despite the fact that by this time he had already played hundreds of characters in hundreds of films!

But having the “real Jack” on this disc is a cool factor to historians and fans. Any album with Mercer and Questel is a treasure. If there were any real criticism to make, it would be to have just a little more Mae, perhaps at the center of a Popeye-Brutus rivalry story.

It’s “Brutus,” not “Bluto.” That’s part of the 220-cartoon TV blitz of 1960, when King Features hired several animation companies to produce five-minute limited animation shorts specifically for the small screen. To some of us–for better or worse–these were the ones we grew up on—the ones where the pen writes “the end.”

Sloppy research made King Features believe that “Bluto’s” name or likeness was owned by Paramount, so they made the character obese and changed his name to “Brutus.” The error was discovered and he reverted back to his rightful identity in the 1978 Hanna-Barbera TV version.

Jack Mercer

The album is written by Richard Kleiner, who could also be the author of the long-running “Ask Dick Kleiner” show business column (probably also syndicated by King Features). The liner notes, if he wrote them, have the jaunty tone of a breezy showbiz column. Yet the notes reveal nothing about what qualifies Popeye writer Kleiner to write Popeye stories other than having three kids who love to watch Popeye on TV. (The columnist Dick Kleiner also had three children.)

Whoever wrote the liner notes didn’t do very good research, if any. Mercer and Questel were not the first Popeye and Olive voices, as it states. The stories are original, as claimed—or at least, as original as Popeye stories can be. But how many premises can you do that haven’t been done? But while they are amusing and true to Popeye’s basic style (the Wimpy tale is especially fun: “A hamburger! My favorite fruit!”), they don’t delve very deeply into Popeye lore, even as much as the TV cartoons did.

Peter Pan produced an album at the same time as this one on their Diplomat and Rocking Horse labels that used six actual cartoon stories from the King Features series. It’s interesting how there was an overlap—each LP even has a scuba diving story. But that album is performed by Harry F. Welch, who also plays Olive and Swee’ Pea.

The RCA album has Jack Mercer and Mae Questel. So there you go.

GIVE A LITTLE LISTEN

“Popeye’s Favorite Stories”

It’s such a marvel to hear these two legends make their vocal magic for 42 glorious minutes.

No credits are issued for the writers or performers, but what makes this record interesting is that it’s NOT the familiar Sammy Lerner “I’m Popeye The Sailor Man” song. One might imagine a number of kids being disappointed at learning this once they got it home and played it.

However, it’s a mighty catchy ditty and appealing in its own way. The original cover (above left; reissue sleeve at right) makes no claim to be the specific Lerner song, so it’s not as deceptive as some children’s (and low-budget copycat) records could be during this era.

This theme was used for Peter Pan’s Diplomat/Rocking Horse Popeye story album with Harry F. Welch. You can hear both sides of the 78 RPM disc here:

8 Comments

Kevin Wollenweber

January 16, 2018 6:30:32 am

Jack Mercer could be heard as narrator on most of the Trans-Lux FELIX THE CAT cartoons on which he did *EVERY* voice, sometimes speeding up his voice to alter the pitch so that he could also be the Professor’s nephew. So Mercer’s versatility is widely known. He truly is a vocal Jack of all Trades, so to speak. The background singers on the alternate POPEYE theme via Peter Pan Records almost comes off like the arrangement of same for the MIGHTY MOUSE theme.

“Sloppy research made King Features believe that “Bluto’s” name or likeness was owned by Paramount, so they made the character obese and changed his name to “Brutus.” The error was discovered and he reverted back to his rightful identity in the 1978 Hanna-Barbera TV version.”

Too bad that, that was all that was restored, as it was for Sat.AM TV so no violence would be used, as Jack himself once pointed out..:(

Even though RCA had been recording in stereo as early as 1954 – releasing the 2-channel versions on reel-to-reel tape and later on LPs when stereo discs were perfected in 1958 – for some reason they apparently recorded, or mastered, the Popeye album monophonically in 1960. That would explain why, when they wanted a stereo version, it had to be “electronically reprocessed” – in other words, faking the stereo. It seems that happened around 1968; the “Catalog of Copyright Entries: Third Series Volume 22, Part nB Number i” of January – June 1968 has listings for the stereo version of this album as well as for the earlier “Popeye’s Favorite Sea Shanties and Other Songs.”

As a guess, perhaps in 1960 RCA felt that kiddies wouldn’t care about stereo and decided to forego the extra expense in producing what was, like all Camden albums, a bargain product.

Jack Mercer didn’t perform “Popeye’s”voice at the start of”Popeye’s Favorite Sea Shanties”..radio/tv broadcaster/entertainer/artist/scriptwriter and kids tv host/performer:”Capt.Allen”Swift did the sailor’s voice and performed on the RCA Camden kids’ LP.

Chris Sobieniak

January 16, 2018 7:21:24 pm

Interesting how they had to split up the two for that Peter Pan 78 you highlighted. I recall you included the tune a few years before in a clear copy anyone can check out here too!https://youtu.be/vI76iqy24Mc?t=9m5s

KFS really dropped the ball by thier sloppy research thinking that Bluto was owned by Paramount (Bluto was actually created by Segar) so a few changes were made and hence the doppelgänger known as Brutus was created which was odd because the original Bluto was still being shown on tv with the Paramount Popeye cartoons in the 1960’s. And. KFS’s “recreation of Olive Oyl was a total nightmare using Olive’s torso from the 1930s and 1940s and her head from the 1950s.

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ABOUT GREG EHRBAR

GREG EHRBAR is a freelance writer/producer for television, advertising, books, theme parks and stage. Greg has worked on content for such studios as Disney, Warner and Universal, with some of Hollywood’s biggest stars. His numerous books include Mouse Tracks: The Story of Walt Disney Records (with Tim Hollis). Visit gregehrbar.com for more.